As would be expected as they were as close as brothers, Richard was standing up with William. The latter had been impatient to see his Elizabeth but had calmed when he saw Jane Bingley heading up the aisle. As soon as she reached her place opposite Richard, the aging rector gave the signal for everyone to stand.
Mr. Pierce nodded to two men at the rear of the nave and each one opened an inner vestibule door. Darcy almost forgot to breathe when the vision which was his bride entered the nave of the church.
Her gown was an off-white silk with a clear gossamer overlay which shimmered as she walked. Like Jane before her, Elizabeth wore a veil, and she was adorned with the jewels Darcy had presented her from the family collection. The necklace an enormous central emerald with alternating emeralds and diamonds either side of it all the way to the clasp in . In addition she wore the matching earrings and her hair pins were tipped with diamond and emerald chips.
She was always beautiful, but now she was a vision.
Richard did not need to remind Darcy to move to the spot where Elizabeth’s father would hand her to him. He was far too keen to have her as his wife to forget.
Bennet stopped in front of Darcy, lifted his daughter’s veil, and kissed both of her cheeks before replacing the lace. After walking up the three steps, with Elizabeth’s hand resting comfortably on his forearm, they stood before the clergyman.
The parson signalled everyone to be seated. “Dearly beloved…”
This time when they said their vows it was aloud in front of all of the witnesses. As Jane and Charles had done, they flouted convention and presented each other with rings. While their friends were making for their conveyances for the quick trip to Netherfield Park, the new Darcys were in the registry making sure they had signed the book correctly.
By the time they joined the enlarged extended family, both had extremely swollen lips.
Fanny and Bennet were the final two to exit the church before the newlyweds. “God has been very good to us, has He not Thomas?” Fanny asserted.
“He surely has, Fanny,” Bennet agreed. “That and several changed hearts brought us to this point in time.”
“When you are correct, you are correct,” Fanny smiled as they linked their arms tighter and walked towards the Bennet carriage waiting in front of the landau which would transport the newlyweds to Netherfield Park.
Epilogue
Pemberly July 1821
“Bennet Alexander Darcy, did you hide Bethie’s favourite doll again,” Elizabeth demanded of her eldest child.
She normally called him Ben when she was not remonstrating with her almost nine- year-old son. Much to her husband’s and her parents’ delight, Ben, who had arrived in the world in August 1812, looked very much like his father had at the same age—dark curly hair, the same piercing blue eyes, and already tall for his age. Additionally, he very much had his mother’s character and seemed to like playing pranks just as she had at that stage in life.
Bethie—Bethany Anne—had been born in December 1815, only two days before Jesus’s birthday, and would be six in December coming.
Ben was not vindictive and he loved his sisters and would protect them with all that he was able when needed, but he was somewhat of an imp and thought it was great fun to make Bethie search the nursery for her doll. “Yes, Mama, I did.” Like his father, Ben was honest to a fault.
The youngest Darcy—for the time being because Elizabeth was with child again—was Mary Jane who had been born in February 1819. Where Bethie looked like a younger version of her Aunt Giana, Mary Jane looked exactly like her mother—something her father thought was excellent. She was smaller than her cousins of the same age, had the raven coloured ringlets like her mother, and the same emerald-green eyes.
“I told you he did, did I not Mama?” Bethie exclaimed.
“Ben you need to learn that even if you do not mean harm, playing the same prank over and over again can be hurtful to Bethie,” Elizabeth told her son gently.
The change in her son’s face was instantaneous as he understood the import of his mother’s words. His big blue eyes filled up with unshed tears as he felt horrified that he may have hurt his sister.
Without a word he took himself up to the nursery and returned with the purloined doll which he wordlessly handed to his sister. “Sorry Bethie, I will not hide her again,” Ben stated gravely.
“I forgive you, Ben,” Bethie allowed as she hugged her doll who in colouring looked much like her mama.
“Off you two go, back to the nursery and make sure you do not wake Mary Jane,” Elizabeth tutted. “I am sure you have lessons yet this morning do you not Ben?”
“I do Mama. Greek,” Ben scrunched up his nose in disgust. Like his parents, he was a very intelligent boy who despite his display loved to learn.
She nodded and the nursemaid who had been waiting for her charges came forward and took Bethie’s free hand and then led the two young Darcys back to the nursery.
The guests would begin to arrive later that day. As they did most summers, the Darcys would be hosting the extended family for almost two months. One thing Elizabeth was as thankful for today, as she had been when Jane and Charles had purchased Meadowbrook, was the fact her most beloved sister and best friend lived less than twenty miles from Pemberley, about fifteen miles the other side of Lambton.
When both families were in residence at their estates, hardly a week passed without visits to one estate or the other.
Pemberly’s steward had informed Darcy of the estate coming up for sale in May 1811. Jane was in the early stages of being with child when the Bingleys had come to visit thus facilitating viewings of Meadowbrook. While Jane and Elizabeth had inspected the manor house, Darcy and Bingley had ridden the estate with the steward.
